St. Joseph County Council vote allows smoking rooms

June 13, 2006|By JAMES WENSITS Tribune Political Writer

SOUTH BEND Â? The St. Joseph County Council voted unanimously Tuesday to override the county commissionersÂ? veto of an amendment to the county anti-smoking ordinance that allows willing employers to establish separate smoking rooms for employees who smoke.

The vote may represent the last puff of smoke in a back-and-forth discussion that has raged since the anti-smoking ordinance was passed by the council and then quickly vetoed by the commissioners in January.

The council decision doesnÂ?t change the ordinanceÂ?s prohibition against smoking in the public places and private, employee breakrooms covered by the ordinance, but does end what some council members felt was an intrusion on the rights of private businesses to provide separate smoking facilities for workers who smoke.

The council also voted to allow erection of a billboard at the Indiana Toll Road and Beech Road in eastern St. Joseph County, but denied a request by the same petitioner to erect a similar billboard at the Toll Road and County Line Road on the countyÂ?s western edge.

The council also at least temporarily ended a simmering dispute in Penn Township by approving a resolution that will allow the township to borrow $135,000 to meet a projected deficit in poor relief needs for this year.

Township Trustee Mike Hayes sought the resolution to meet spiraling poor relief requests. The loan will be repaid next year by increasing the township tax levy.

Hayes, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor of Mishawaka next year, correctly predicted the request would become a political issue and he has since weathered criticism from Mike Hodgson, Republican candidate for trustee, and County Commissioner Mark Dobson, R-1st, concerning his decision to open a township teen center in 2003.

Jeff Dean, supervisor of township assistance and the Democratic candidate for trustee, opined that the focus on the teen center was a political effort and said that people seeking assistance are coming into the office in record numbers.

The measure passed by a 5-4 party line vote.

The council overrode the commissionersÂ? veto of the anti-smoking ordinance amendment with a minimum of discussion and no public hearing.

Council Member Dale DeVon, R-District C, an early proponent of allowing businesses to have a choice whether to provide employee smoking rooms, said the council knew when it passed the original ordinance that it was Â?a starting point.Â?

Â?I found it very disappointing,Â? Commissioner Steve Ross, D-District 2, said of the vote.

Â?This is a poor indication of leadership,Â? Ross said. Â?The whole premise of constantly changing the ordinance does not tell the public we are good stewards of government.Â?

Marilyn Eber, executive director of Healthy Communities Initiative, said she, too, was disappointed by the vote. Â?This weakens it,Â? she said of the ordinance. Â?Smoking rooms do not protect people.Â?

Both billboard requests came from Charles S. Hayes, Inc., which sought permission to erect billboards on agriculturally-zoned tracts that already support the companyÂ?s cell phone towers.

According to Council President Rafael Morton, D-District D, the fact that trees on the eastern site could provide screening for the billboard while no such screening was available on the western site was a factor in the decision.

The Area Plan Commission had earlier recommended against both requests, saying the rezoning pleas represented spot zoning and also circumvented state and federal laws regulating billboards along interstate and primary highways.